Antibody News

Cyclization recombination enzyme (Cre) is a member of the extensive family of recombinases and recognizes a 34 bp sequence motif from PI bacteriophage referred to as LoxP. The Cre enzyme works to cleanly excise an intervening DNA fragment that is flanked by two LoxP sites. The LoxP sites must be present in the same orientation. The excised segment is later degraded to leave only a single LoxP site copy in the starting target molecule. As Cre was first developed in the late 1980's and heavily used to artificially manipulate gene expression in many systems, there are comprehensive reviews of the Cre/lox system in the literature (1). Additionally, because the Cre/Lox system is very compatible in terms of versatility, it can be applied to a wide variety of cell types, such that there are numerous stable bacterial, plant, and animal stocks containing a Cre gene copy controlled under an assortment of useful promoters - ubiquitous, tissue-specific, inducible...

Dnmt1 belongs to the C5-methyltransferase family that repairs cytosines in dsDNA using a nucleophilic attack mechanism. Dnmt1 is the most abundant mammalian DNA methyltransferase. It is the key methylation maintenance enzyme for both DNA replication/repair and de novo methylation during somatic cell development and differentiation. It primarily acts upon CpG residues, with a preference for hemimethylated residues, but is capable of methylating unmethylated DNA more than other Dnmt enzymes. In cell division, it is essential for epigenetic inheritance because it associates with S-phase DNA replication sites to maintain the methylation pattern in newly synthesized strand. To maintain DNA methylation independently of replication, Dnmt1 routinely cycles through different states of complex formation and localization. It...

Get into the Winter Protein Games 2014! Check out the contenders competing including SKI, POLE, ICEBURG, SKT, TRAIL, WIN and BOB1. Learn more about each protein's function, gene name, molecular weight and family.

View all the fun and games happening in our Winter Protein Games Infographic below.

Novus Biologicals offers reagents for each target:

1. SKI

2. POLE

3. ICEBERG

4. SKT

5. TRAIL

6. WIN

7. BOB1

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Noxa is a pro-apoptotic gene belonging to the Bcl2 protein family that is unique in that it contains only BH3 domain. The BH3-only subclass of proteins, including proteins like PUMA and Bim in addition to Noxa, regulate the remaining Bcl-2 family members. Due to the key roles these proteins play in this critical pathway, BH3-only proteins have great promise as therapeutic targets for cancers such as leukemias, as well as autoimmune diseases, as discussed in extensive reviews by Zhang, et al. and Cottier, et al. (1,2).

IKK beta, also known as IKK2, activates the NFkB complex by phosphorylating the NFkB inhibitor, IkBa. Several transcript variants, some protein-coding and some not, have been found for IKKB. The Nuclear Factor-kappa B (NF-kB) family of transcription factors regulates the expression of a wide range of genes critical for immune and inflammatory responses, cell survival, immune development, and cell proliferation (1). NF-kB was firstly identified by Dr. Ranjan Sen in the lab of Nobel Prize laureate David Baltimore as a regulator of kB light chain expression in mature B and plasma cells (2). Years of research following this discovery demonstrated that NF-kB is expressed in almost all cell types and tissues, and specific NF-kB binding sites are present in the promoters/enhancers of a large number of genes.

The NF-kB family contains five structurally related members named p50 and p52 (...

Inhibitor of nuclear factor kappa-B kinase subunit alpha (IKK1 alpha) is a serine/threonine kinase that forms a complex with IKK beta and NEMO. It plays an essential role in embryonic skin development. Mice with low levels of IKKa show an increase in squamous cell carcinoma and overexpression of IKK-α in the skin of these mice abrogates tumor formation (1).

IKK-alpha has also been shown to play a role in B-cell maturation and survival.  BAFF is a soluble signal molecule that is required for B-cell survival and signals through an IKK-α regulated NFkB pathway.  Deletion of IKK-a during B-cell development inhibits B-cell maturation and BAFF-dependent survival but deletion IKK-α in mature B-cells shows no effect.  This study indicates that IKK-α plays an important role in B-cell development and survival (2).

DNA-methyltransferase 3B (DNMT3B), also known as DNA methyltransferase HsaIIIB, is a member of the class I-like SAM-binding methyltransferase superfamily and C5-methyltransferase family. DNMT3B plays an essential role in the establishment of DNA methylation patterns during development and is vital for genome-wide de novo methylation.

DNMT3B has been linked to two distinct types of leukemia in recent studies: acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML).  In AML, myeloid blood cells become cancerous and cause rapid production of abnormal while blood cells in the bone marrow, which in turn, affects production of regular blood cells (1).  A mutation of the DNMT3B gene is frequently found in patients with AML (2).  Studies have found a correlation between overexpression of DNMT3B and...

Apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) endonuclease 1 (APE1) plays an important role in the DNA base excision repair pathway. APE1 repairs damaged or mismatched nucleotides in DNA by hydrolyzing the phosphodiester backbone at apurinic/apyrimidinic sites (AP sites) which produces 5'-deoxyribose phosphate and a 3'-OH primer which is needed for repair synthesis.  It has an absolute requirement for Mg²⁺ as a cofactor.  Recently, the structure of APE1 with the Mg²⁺ cofactor was elucidated (1).

APE1 has recently been shown to play a role in regulating tumor angiogenesis.  Clinical data suggests that APE1 upregulates fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) and its receptor, fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (...

Centromere protein F (CENPF) also known as Mitosin, AH antigen, and kinetochore protein CENPF, is a protein that associates with the centromere-kinetochore complex. CENPF forms both a homodimer and a heterodimer. CENPF can be found in different cellular locations depending on the stage of mitosis. During G2 phase of interphase, CENPF is found in the nuclear matrix.  During late G2 into early anaphase, CENPF associates with the kinetochore.  In late anaphase into telophase, CENPF localizes to the spindle midzone and intracellular bridge.  CENPF is degraded by the end of cellular division (1).  The migration of CENPF is regulated by Forkhead transcription factor FoxM1 (2). Accumulating evidence suggests that CENPF is an important protein involved in chromosome alignment and kinetochore-microtubule interaction.  Learn more about CENPF in our infographic below.

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NeuN is a RNA-binding protein that modulates alternative splicing and is localized both to the nucleus and cytoplasm. It is a member of the RNA-binding FOX (RBFOX) family of splicing regulators which includes RBFOX1 (Fox-1/A2BP1) and RBFOX2 (Fox-2/RBM9). Each FOX family member is differentially expressed – RBFOX1 in neurons, heart, and muscle while RBFOX3 is exclusively limited to neurons. RBFOX2 has a broader profile that includes the earlier mentioned tissues as well as in embryos, hematopoietic cells, and embryonic stem cells. All FOX proteins have one RNA-binding recognition domain that binds the (U)GCAUG sequence found within introns flanking alternative exons and initiates splicing.

NBS1 (Nijmegen breakage syndrome protein 1) is a component of the MRN complex (Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1) that plays important role in detecting DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) and triggering the downstream cascade. DSBs can be caused by ionizing radiation, chemotherapy drugs, metabolic ROS, replication errors, programmed enzymatic activities during meiosis/V(D)J recombination, etc. NBS1 acts as a DSB sensor, co-activator of DSB-induced cell cycle checkpoint signaling, and also the repair-effector via two competing DSB repair pathways - homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ). The MRN complex also associates with...

The low density lipoprotein receptor coordinates the metabolism of cholesterol, an essential component of the mammalian cell plasma membranes. Study of this carefully balanced system has led to an enhanced understanding of cholesterol homeostasis at the cellular level. Receptor-mediated endocytosis (RME) is an important mechanism of metabolic regulation. Garbarino’s group used LDL receptor antibody and small hairpin RNA knockdown to show that knockdown of STARD4 in hepatocytes disrupts cholesterol trafficking between the plasma membrane, endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and endocytic recycling compartment (ERC...